That’s not a surprise, considering he was an undrafted rookie thrust into the starting lineup. What surprised all of us was that he was a road grader in the running game, which is something we’re obviously not measuring here. Does that make up for his inadequacies in pass protection? Unfortunately, no.

Also fair — T.J. Lang, Bryan Bulaga, Marshall Newhouse and Evan Dietrich-Smith have some areas to improve in. Or maybe a better assessment is this. The Packers need to bring in some new talent on the offensive line.

It’s not hard to see that the left side of the Packers offensive line didn’t play well in 2012. Of the team’s 51 sacks surrendered, 25 were given up by Newhouse and Lang — the team’s starting left tackle and guard.

Those positions should be priorities for the Packers to address this offseason. Will they? We’re going to say it’s doubtful.

The team is still counting on former first-round pick Derek Sherrod to compete for a spot. There’s also been talk of moving Bulaga back to left tackle (although he wasn’t much better than Newhouse in 2012). Then there’s the fact the Packers gave Lang a contract extension last offseason.

That doesn’t bode well for an influx of new talent. Besides, you know the Packers love the status quo more than anything else.

Would be fair if we could get a breakdown of when Lang gave up those sacks, hurries and hits. His games at RT were awful, further acknowledging the fact that he's a guard. I actually thought he did a pretty decent job at that spot.

Barclay is what he is. A pretty decent run blocker with some glaring holes in his pass protection.

Newhouse was/is an athletic project. I think that he can still get better and be an effective LT, but yes, he does still get beaten by the better pass rushers at this point in his career. I don't know if he'll ever become an elite LT, I don't think so, but he's servicable.

We should hope that Sherrod comes back strong. He's not that much different from Newhouse, but just a tad bigger, a tad more talented. I feel that, with some development, he'll surpass Newhouse.

Problem his, he'll need some playing time and he might not, from the get go, play on Newhouse's level, so we'll have to hope he'll actually see the field at all next season.

The only offensive lineman that has an automatic starting job is Sitton going into training camp. I would say we have a lot of weaknesses on our offensive line. But, when you take into account the amount of times the Packers go empty to get 5 wide out on the field - our line is put in a tough position.

The first thing that comes to my mind is that the numbers are skewed because the sacks usually come from the edge not the center of the line. So, as an example, Barclay with 14 may have actually done much better than Lang with 12. Without knowing who they're actually assigned to block it's impossible to tell.

The first thing that comes to my mind is that the numbers are skewed because the sacks usually come from the edge not the center of the line. So, as an example, Barclay with 14 may have actually done much better than Lang with 12. Without knowing who they're actually assigned to block it's impossible to tell.

Yep. Hard to tell. Were there stunts or twists that didn't get picked up? Was there 2 guys coming over OT? One to the inside and one to the outside? Was the RB/TE suppose to assist and he wasn't there?

Raw numbers don't mean a whole lot without the reviewing each play. Glad that is not my job.

Also, this article only compares the Packers O-linemen, than draws the conclusion that they need new guys because some did worse than others. John Madden and I would be willing to go out on a limb (a fairly stout one though) and say that that is true of most any football team ever/anywhere. In short, it doesn't mean much if it isn't comparing them to other linemen in the league. Not to say the conclusion is wrong (because it may very well be correct), just that the method of reaching it isn't.

You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.